I think it fair to say Teddy Roosevelt would not be a fan of the Roberts Supreme Court, nor would he be a Republican today.
“…our government, National and State, must be freed from the sinister influence or control of special interests… the great special business interests too often control and corrupt the men and methods of government for their own profit. We must drive the special interests out of politics… For every special interest is entitled to justice, but not one is entitled to a vote in Congress, to a voice on the bench, or to representation in any public office. The Constitution guarantees protection to property, and we must make that promise good. But it does not give the right of suffrage to any corporation.”
“We’ve slipped away from a true Republic. Now we’re slipping into a fascist system where it’s a combination of government and big business and authoritarian rule and the suppression of the individual rights of each and every American citizen.”
As you max out your credit cards at the gas pumps, you should know that the major players to blame for the spike in gas prices are the same people who tanked the world economy four years ago–our friends, the Wall Street speculators.
That’s right, many of the same banksters–Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, et al., who manipulated the mortgage market with unsecured derivatives, created a bubble that burst in 2007 and 2008, causing a worldwide financial meltdown–are in large part responsible for the skyrocketing price of gas at the pump. Another familiar name, Enron, even has a role in this story.
There are multiple reasons for fluctuations in the price of gas, among them oil supply and demand, and geopolitical developments. But according to Bart Chilton, a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates commodity futures and option trading in the United States, much of the spike in gas prices is due to “excess speculation” by Wall Street traders.
How much? Chilton told ABC News that Honda Civic owners are paying about $7.30 to Wall Street speculators each time they fill up their gas tank. Ford Explorer owners pay even more, an extra $10.41. For a Ford F150, it jumps to $14.56 per fill-up, or about $750 a year. How Wall Street is Raising the Price of Gas.
Chilton said the CFTC is trying to put new rules in place to limit speculation. Wall Street predictably does not approve and is suing the CFTC in order to get an injunction to keep the status quo.There have been investigations, by Congress, by the Justice Department and other federal agencies, but they all seem to fade away under the weight of Wall Street clout. Amazing how that works.
The Consumer Federation of America estimated the average household, which spent almost $2.900 in 2011 on gasoline, will spend almost $600 more this year due to “excessive speculation.” They figured deregulation added about $30 per barrel to the cost of oil in 2011, draining more than $200 billion from the economy. “It was weak regulation that landed us in our current economic mess,” CFA Director of Investor Protection Barb Roper said, “and it will take a strong policy response to restore the economy to health.” CNN Money
And who was responsible for the deregulation that enabled the excess speculation in the oil futures market? Steve Kroft asked Michael Greenberger, a former director of trading for the CFTC, that question on a CBS 60 Minutes segment in 2009.
“You’d have to say Enron,” he replied. “This was something they desperately wanted, and they got…This was when Enron was riding high. And what Enron wanted, Enron got.”
ExxonMobil Chairman Rex Tillerson, testified before the Senate Finance Committee on May 12, 2011, suggesting that excessive speculation may have increased oil prices by as much as 40 percent. What Wall Street Doesn’t Want Us to Know About Oil Prices
At that hearing, Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) pointed out that the oil futures market was set up to moderate the price and risk of petroleum for those who use it. Prior to deregulation, for most of the 20th Century, non-oil-using speculators accounted for 30 percent or less of the oil commodities market. Now that number is closer to 70 percent. Senator Cantwell Press Release
Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont leaked CFTC data last August showing that at the time of oil’s record high near $150 a barrel in July 2008, the market was dominated by big speculative players such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and the secretive Swiss oil-trading firm Vitol. You would be correct if you remember hearing many of those names during the 2008 financial meltdown and its aftermath.
According to Senator Sanders, in a Washington Post op-ed last September:
“The CFTC report proved that when oil prices climbed in 2008 to more than $140 a barrel, Wall Street speculators dominated the oil futures market. Goldman Sachs alone bought and sold more than 860 million barrels of oil in the summer of 2008 with no intention of using a drop for any purpose other than to make a quick buck.”
The Vermont senator understands what is at stake:
“One of the great questions of our time, is whether the American people, through Congress, will control the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior on Wall Street, or whether Wall Street will continue to wreak havoc on our economy and the lives of working families…”
PUBLISHED IN OPEDNEWS.COM (Headline Status) 02/26/2012
“War is made or planned now by individual men, demagogues and dictators who play on the patriotism of their people to mislead them into a belief in the great fallacy of war when all their vaunted reforms have failed to satisfy the people they misrule.”
Ernest Hemingway
from “Notes on the Next War: A Serious Topical Letter” Esquire (September 1935)
With gas prices soaring of late, this seems like a good time to re-post an article I wrote last summer about the reasons for fluctuation in the price of oil. I’ve added some additional material at the bottom of this post…..
Why You Are Going Broke Filling Up Your Car
by Arlen Grossman/ The Big Picture Report/ August 24, 2011
“There has been a major debate over the last several years as to whether spikes in oil prices are caused by the fundamentals of supply and demand or whether excessive speculation in the oil futures market is playing a major role…It seems to me that debate has finally ended. We now know that excessive oil speculation is a major reason why oil prices have risen so sharply.”
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in a letter to Gery Gensler, the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, August 22, 2011
If you have wondered what causes gas prices to go up and down (more often up than down) you are not alone. Americans have been digging deeper into their wallets to keep the fuel tanks of their vehicles full, and wondering about the daily fluctulations in gas prices.
After all, why is the price for gasoline almost a dollar more per gallon than it was two years ago when oil supplies were lower and demand was higher?
The answer is now clearer than ever.
Senator Bernie Sanders released secret information compiled from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) shedding light on the major role that financial speculators–the same ones that brought on the meltdown of our economy in 2007-2008–play in determining how much you are paying at the gas pumps.
According to Senator Sanders, “This report clearly shows that in the summer of 2008 when gas prices spiked to more than $4 a gallon, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and other speculators on Wall Street dominated the crude oil futures market causing tremendous damage to the entire economy, The CFTC has kept this information hidden from the American public for nearly three years. That is an outrage.” He believes these speculators “are playing the same games in 2011.” Statement by Senator Sanders
Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), during a Senate Finance Committee hearing last May, pointed out that the oil futures market was set up to moderate the price and risk of petroleum for those who use it, but at this time “70 percent of the market being driven by speculators that are not the end-takers of any product.”Senator Cantwell Press Release
Senator Sanders introduced the “End Excessive Oil Speculation Now Act of 2011” (S . 1200) last June that would require the CFTC chairman to impose strict limits on the trading of oil speculators.
In his August 22 letter to CFTC Chairman Gensler, Senator Sanders urged the chairman to convene an emergency meeting of the CFTC “to impose strong position limits that would eliminate excessive oil speculation as soon as possible.”
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law enacted last year required the CFTC to impose strict limits on oil speculators by January 17, 2011. The CFTC is “breaking the law” by not doing so, Senator Sanders wrote to Gensler. Letter to CFTC Commissioner
The Commission claims it lacks enough information. Senator Sander, despite three years of collecting data. Senator Sanders called their excuses “laughable.”
“The American people have a right to know exactly who caused gas prices to skyrocket in 2008 and who is causing them to spike today.” Reuters article
“Speculation will add $600 to the average household expenditures on gasoline in 2011,” a report released Thursday by the Consumer Federation of America said, “resulting in the highest level of spending ever of almost $2,900.
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